Protein degradation inhibition by Nanomaterials
The lysosome–autophagy system and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS)
are the well-known mechanisms for removing the modified and aggregated
proteins, and damaged organelles as cellular wastes. The cooperative
function of autophagy and UPS systems function produce short-chain
polypeptides that maintain the amino acid supply and energy balance of
the starved cells, which is vital in maintaining the cellular
homeostasis (Mizushima, Levine, Cuervo, &
Klionsky, 2008; Nam, Han, Devkota, &
Lee, 2017). It is shown that the diminished rate of intracellular
protein degradation and autophagy, led to the misfolded proteins and
non-functional macromolecules inside the cell, which are involved in the
pathology of neurodegenerative disease associated with aging, such as
Parkinson and Alzheimer (Jiang &
Mizushima, 2014; Nah et al., 2015).
Also, the dysregulated autophagy system impact on the innate immune
response. Pro-inflammatory factors activity, cytokine/chemokine
secretion, lymphocyte activity, and tracing antigen were associated with
blunted autophagy response in some age-related diseases
(Cuervo & Macian, 2014;
Shi et al., 2012).
More than forty types of nanomaterials have been reported so far with
modulating effect on cell autophagy, including diverse structural types
of graphene, carbon-based nanotubes, gold particles, dendrimers, iron
oxide, cationic liposomes, fullerene and its derivatives, silica, and
α-alumina (Cordani & Somoza, 2019).
Nanomaterials can influence the process of cell autophagy via multiple
pathways. These compounds can have plausible applications in the
detection and control of autophagy-associated diseases, especially those
related to aging. Different nanomaterials mediate distinct mechanisms of
autophagy based on their disparate chemical and physical particularity
(Wei & Le, 2019). The mechanisms of
autophagy modulation induced by nanomaterials can be categorized into
three classes: oxidative stress induction, direct regulation of
autophagic signaling pathways, such as Akt/mTOR, and alteration of the
autophagy-related genes or proteins expression level
(Zheng, Wei, Li, & Le, 2016).Table 3 summarizes some nanomaterials with autophagic
modulating modulatory effects as anti-aging materials.